A committee of high-ranking Jefferson Parish public education officials and consultants is developing criteria to close and consolidate schools, hoping to present recommendations to the School Board by January, the committee's chairman said Thursday. Deputy Superintendent Richard Carpenter said the committee, appointed by interim Superintendent James Meza, has met at least five times to discuss the process.

Richard Carpenter

He plans to offer a set of criteria to the board Dec. 7, and if it approves, the committee will begin drawing up a list of proposed closings for the board's consideration, possibly in January. The closings would be effective for the 2012-13 school year.

"We're not close to making recommendations on" closings, Carpenter said. "Our intent as a committee is not to make any recommendations without the board first approving the criteria that we are going to use in the selection process.

In recent years, several board members advocated to downsize the system, citing the loss of about 8,000 students after Hurricane Katrina and severe budget shortfalls. But Meza's predecessor, Diane Roussel, could never muster support from a majority of board members, who stood behind parents and staffs of the schools pegged for closure.Carpenter is mindful of the potential for controversy.

"This is an extremely sensitive topic, and we know that some sectors of the community will not be happy," he said. "That's why we have to insure that our recommendations are based upon objective data."

He said public hearings will be held before any closings are approved, and officials will meet with parents and staffs to explain how they will be integrated into new schools.

"I don't want to go to the board without getting input from the community," Meza said. "It's going to be difficult to close any school. It's a level of ownership that we're taking away. That's how it's perceived."

Although Jefferson officials have tried and failed to close schools before, it now has a largely new School Board and a new superintendent in place, perhaps making this not a matter of if schools will close but how many and which ones.

Meza said the committee will consider such factors as enrollment, performance scores and the population density in attendance districts to determine which schools could be candidates for closure.

"If a school is not successful and it has a low enrollment, it will probably meet the criteria for closure," he said. He defined low enrollment as under 400 students.

Carpenter said the committee will assign each school a score based on a rubric that takes all criteria into account. Alternative schools, those that serve special populations such as students expelled from conventional schools and students far behind their age-group peers, probably will be scored differently.

"We want to remove subjectivity as much as humanely possible and use measurable data in making our recommendations," he said.

Until they know how many and which schools will close, officials said they do not know how much money can be saved. Savings from salaries would be minimal because most teachers presumably would follow students to other schools. Meza said the biggest savings would come in maintenance costs, especially for the the system's oldest campuses.